Ohio Atty’s Still Can’t Take Fees from Financial Services Groups

Ohio attorneys still can’t accept referral fees from financial services groups, the state’s professional conduct board said.

The Oct. 4 advisory opinion updates Opinion 2000-1, which reached the same conclusion and withdraws it.

Back then, the state hadn’t adopted its version of the American Bar Association’s Model Rules of Professional Conduct so that opinion was rendered under a different set of rules, Alvin Mathews, an attorney with James E. Arnold & Associates in Columbus, Ohio, said.

Mathews is a former assistant disciplinary counsel and specializes in professional liability defense.

Nevertheless, the bottom line is that the opinion has ...